About 800,000 federal employees will have to stay home if the government shuts down, but Rep. Darrell Issa’s staff won’t be among them.

The California Republican said he’ll use his congressional prerogative to keep his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff at work. Congressional offices can declare that their employees are necessary to fulfill constitutional responsibilities — which can cover pretty much anything under the sun — and that’s what Issa (@DarrellIssa) tweeted that he’ll do.

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POLITICO 44

“If gov't shuts down, we won't. I believe those who choose to come into work fall under my Constitutional arm. Accountability must continue.”

The Obama administration says about 800,000 federal employees would be affected by a government shutdown, which also would stall tax refunds and close national parks. Military personnel “will continue to earn money during this period of time, but given that we don’t have any money to pay out, they will not be paid, they will not receive their paychecks, until we have money again and Congress appropriates,” an administration official told reporters Wednesday.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 1:14 p.m. on April 6, 2011.

Yes his staff is essential. We need to find all the illegal activity the obama administration has been up to. The most corrupt and closed adminstration ever and yet it was suppsoed to be the most transparent. Just another lie.

Way too much Kool Aid for you Poppa.! Enjoy your diatribe while you can. Your tea party morons will soon be a dismal footnote in history. Get ready for four more years of Obama. You've earned it and you're going to get it! Can't wait till Friday and your colossal political tea party blunder. Shut the government down, then back to obscurity for you pasty, white, obese old farts.

Good, the taxpayers could do without 800,000 government employees. Notice how I called them employees. That is exactly what they are. We are their employers. Of course, you wouldn't know it the way they act.

Kansas Girl you are so typical of the thoughtless wing of the conservative movement.

These are regular workers that provide services to people every day. They do things like inspect food to make sure it is safe for you to consume, process social security checks for the elderly, issue loan documents for VA loans, monitor weather to provide advance warnings.

But go ahead, be a fracking fool and declare that you don't need any services.

Rep Issa thinks he is special. If the government is shut down, it will take a vote of the House to declare that his staff is more sacrosanct than those of other members. He can not within current House rules do this unilaterally. The notion that a handful of republicans can simply get together and make their own rules on the fly and impose them on every one else without a vote does a disservice to the entire concept of democracy.

He might be able to get away with this in Libya, but it shouldn't happen here in the US, unless of course our new republican house wants to demonstrate it is no better than their Libyan counterparts.